League City residents face rationing, fines in place

Other cities consider mandatory measures

MICHAEL WRIGHT, CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

Published
5:30 am CDT, Tuesday, August 16, 2011

League City residents face fines of up to $500 if they water their yard, wash their cars or fill their swimming pools as the city implements mandatory water rationing, while residents of other Galveston County cities may not water their lawns as officials struggle to cope with Texas' drought.

League City gets 16 million gallons a day of its water from Houston, which is expected to implement mandatory rationing this week. The city gets another 3 million gallons per day from wells and 2 million from the Gulf Coast Water Authority.

As part of its rationing plan, restaurants are not allowed to serve water unless patrons ask for it.

Irrigation of lawns banned in some areas

Other cities in the area are following the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's order to ban irrigation of lawns. Galveston, Clear Lake Shores, Texas City, Dickinson, Seabrook, La Marque and Kemah are among the cities covered by the order banning lawn watering.

League City's drought plan doesn't have a stage that bans irrigation but allows other activities, so the city implemented its strictest measures, said Kristi Wyatt, League City's communications director.

The Gulf Coast Water Authority supplies water to Water Control District No. 12, which serves numerous cities in Galveston County, including Kemah, Dickinson and Galveston. All those cities are covered by the TCEQ's order banning lawn watering.

In the meantime, officials are trying to get the TCEQ to clarify its position on mandatory irrigation.

The agency's board was scheduled to meet Tuesday to clarify what measures municipalities must take.

"What we've done is follow the TCEQ requirements on water conservation," said Ed Holdgraf, the contract manager for Water Control District No. 12. "That's no outside watering."

The Gulf Coast Water Authority is allowed to take up to 200 million gallons of water per day, but thus far is taking about 120 million gallons, said David Sauer, the agency's interim general manager.

"We've got enough water under contract that we should be safe this year," Sauer said.

In other areas

Seabrook has asked for voluntary water rationing, City Manager Chuck Pinto said, limiting lawn watering to the evening hours.

"We have a source of water in wells if we need to use those," Pinto said. "We only use those if we need to."

Seabrook can take 3 million gallons of water a day and hasn't used the 85 percent of that amount that would trigger mandatory rationing. If that happens residents will be restricted to mowing their yards once a week.